purpose were the lives of two of them prodigally thrown away; and the honour, the wisdom, the talents of the other, ftill left to languish in banishment [o] and obfcurity? DR. MORE. O! PROPHANE not the glories of immortal, though fuccefslefs virtue, with fuch reproaches.-Thofe adored names fhall preach honour to future ages, and enthrone the majesty of virtue in the hearts of men, when wit and parts, and eloquence and poetry, have not a leaf of all their withered bays to recommend them. MR. WALLER. RAPTURES and chimeras! - Rather judge of the fentiments of future ages, from the present. Where is the man, I fpeak it without boafting, that enjoys a fairer fame; who is better received in all places; who is more liftened to in [o] Lord CLARENDON died in 1674. 7 all all companies; who reaps the fruits of a reasonable and practicable virtue in every return of honour, more unquestionably, than he whose life and principles your outrageous virtue leads you to undervalue fo unworthily? And take it from me as an oracle, which long age and experience enable me to deliver with all affurance, "Whoever, in fucceeding times, fhall form himself on the plan here given, shall meet with the safety, credit, applause, and, if he chufes, honour and fortune in the world, which may be promised indeed, but never will be ob tained, by any other method." DR. MORE. You have spoken. But hear me now, I conjure you, whilst a poor despised philofopher MR. WALLER. O! I HAVE marked the emotion this difcourfe of mine hath awakened in you. VOL. I. E I have I have feen your impatience: I have watched your eyes when they sparkled defiance and contradiction to my argu ment. But your warmth makes you forget yourself. I gave a patient hearing to all your eloquence could fuggeft in this caufe. I even favoured your zeal, and helped to blow up your enthusiasm. The reft fell to my turn; and befides, the evening, as you fee, fhuts in upon us. Let us efcape, at leaft, from its dews, which, in this decline of the year, they fay, are not the most wholesome, into a warm apartment within doors; and then I fhall not be averfe, especially when you have taken a few minutes to recollect yourself, to debate with you what further remains upon this argument [p]. [] The character of Mr. WALLER is given at large in the Life of Lord Clarendon, P. I. p. 25.As for Dr. MORE, Bishop BURNET tells us, in one word, "That he was an open-hearted and fincere "Chriftian philofopher." Hift. of his own Time, vol. i. p. 273. 12, Edinb. 1753. DIA MR. ABRAHAM COWLEY- To the Earl of ST. ALBANS [a]. MY LORD, HE duty I owe your LORDSHIP, THE as well as my friendship for Mr. COWLEY, determined me to lose no time in executing the commiffion you was [a] This Dialogue is founded on a fhort paffage in Mr. SPRAT's Life of Mr. COWLEY, in which he obferves, That in his long dependance on my Lord St. ALBANS, there never happened any manner of difference between them; except a little at LAST, because he would leave his fervice." pleased to charge me with by Mr. D****. I went early the next morning to Barn-Elms [b]; intending to pass the whole day with him, and to try if what I might be able to fuggeft on the occafion, together with the weight of your lordship's advice, could not divert him from his ftrange project of Retirement. Your lordship, no doubt, as all his other friends, had observed his bias that way to be very strong; but who, that knew his great fenfe, could have thought of its carrying him to fo extravagant a refolution? For my own part, I fufpected it fo little, that, though he would often talk of retiring, and especially fince your lordfhip's favour to him [c], I confidered it only as the ufual language of poets, which they take up one after another, [8] A finall village on the Thames, which was Mr. COWLEY's first retreat, 'before he removed to Chert fea. [c] Meaning an eftate he had obtained by means of this lord. This particular is feveral times referred to in the courfe of the Dialogue. and |